"We don't need a Hall of Fame Running Back"
-Chargers' General Manager AJ Smith
There are those of you who have read the above quote and you're ready to stone an effigy of AJ and then light it ablaze on the flagpole of Charger Park.....and rightfully so! Those are AJ's words! How dare he talk about future Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson in such a way!
Then there are the rest of you. Those who are active readers, the ones who ask questions and make inferences. Right now you are asking whether or not that is the quote in its entirety. You've also probably asked, "What was the subject of the article?". What you have asked for is the all important "Context". With creative editing absent context we could be trumping up charges of treason on half of the Cable News talking heads out there.
This....the 57th day since XX1090 Decided to Ruin Your Daily Drive Home
Why do we bring this up? Oh, yes.... another gripe with XX1090's Bleacher Bums!
The afternoon drive team selected a three day old UT article to try and illustrate how AJ is disrespecting LT yet again. For the record we are NOT AJ Smith apologists, by any stretch. We put him on blast for the last pissing contest he had with LT because he was in the wrong but the quote from the UT on Friday was innocuous and given by the Bleacher Bums without any context. Let's examine, because reading comprehension is important...
"I like them," General Manager AJ Smith said of this year's class of backs. "There's a lot of them. There are a bunch of guys who can help us. We don't need a Hall of Fame running back. You need a guy who can help you win championships."
DAMN AJ SMITH!
How about a little bit of context? The article was regarding the 2009 Draft and how the Chargers could seek to find the eventual replacement for LT. Not enough? O.K. here's the title of the article:
Chargers are looking to the draft to tab future running back
So what did AJ mean by not needing a HOF running back? O.K. We can provide more context...here ya go...
"You don't go out and draft a Hall of Fame running back. They become Hall of Fame running backs on their own merit. You go out and draft championship-level running backs. In the early stages, from what I see, there are championship-level running backs out there."
AJ Smith is a dick, no doubt, but we don't see this in any way as a slight against LT. He is assessing the current and future needs of the Chargers and adeptly makes the point that quality running backs can be found in later rounds of the draft (see: Michael Turner (5th) and Darren Sproles (4th)). The 1st round guys may be talented (Wells and Moreno) but they only become HOF caliber through dedication and hard work. Drafting HOFs is not the goal of a GM. Drafting players who can contribute to a championship is the criterion a GM looks for. To label guys as future Hall of Famers in April is foolhardy.
Now if this story was actually a "story" then we'd be hearing a national media uproar similar to the whole 'mocking LT' bit last month. SI.com's Jim Trotter would be calling in to Darren Smith's show talking about the arrogance of AJ. Kevin Acee would be running damage control for AJ's loose lips and Shannon Sharpe would be flapping that gigantic tongue of his all the way from Georgia. Not to mention the Charger Fan backlash that would have overwhelmed the UT blogs and all local radio programs. Have any of these things happened after an article that was written three days ago? Not word one until today..... by the Bleacher Bums.
Too much bad information and poor analysis coming out of these guys. If XTRA1360 is talking about golf we should be able to turn on XX1090 without the fear of being inundated with falsehoods and off base commentary. In addition to the analysis gone awry we were continually told by DI Earl that this quote was on Kevin Acee's blog and was entirely separate from the aforementioned article. This just wasn't the case. Acee's Bolt Blog said nothing regarding the above quotes.
Charger and Padre fans deserve better. We should be able to turn on the radio and acquire up to date and unfiltered information even if it's absent the analysis we feel we deserve. The Bleacher Bums have improved some of the technical aspects of their show but today was just straight junk. They would have you believe that this was their "interpretation" of the story.......we say it was the sort of reading comprehension snafu that generally occurs in students prior to reaching high school.
We'll go ahead and apologize to the Bums if a national uproar ensues regarding AJ's quote but in the meantime this is something that John Lynch needs to examine.
There are those of you who have read the above quote and you're ready to stone an effigy of AJ and then light it ablaze on the flagpole of Charger Park.....and rightfully so! Those are AJ's words! How dare he talk about future Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson in such a way!
Then there are the rest of you. Those who are active readers, the ones who ask questions and make inferences. Right now you are asking whether or not that is the quote in its entirety. You've also probably asked, "What was the subject of the article?". What you have asked for is the all important "Context". With creative editing absent context we could be trumping up charges of treason on half of the Cable News talking heads out there.
This....the 57th day since XX1090 Decided to Ruin Your Daily Drive Home
The afternoon drive team selected a three day old UT article to try and illustrate how AJ is disrespecting LT yet again. For the record we are NOT AJ Smith apologists, by any stretch. We put him on blast for the last pissing contest he had with LT because he was in the wrong but the quote from the UT on Friday was innocuous and given by the Bleacher Bums without any context. Let's examine, because reading comprehension is important...
"I like them," General Manager AJ Smith said of this year's class of backs. "There's a lot of them. There are a bunch of guys who can help us. We don't need a Hall of Fame running back. You need a guy who can help you win championships."
DAMN AJ SMITH!
How about a little bit of context? The article was regarding the 2009 Draft and how the Chargers could seek to find the eventual replacement for LT. Not enough? O.K. here's the title of the article:
Chargers are looking to the draft to tab future running back
Click For Full Text
So what did AJ mean by not needing a HOF running back? O.K. We can provide more context...here ya go...
"You don't go out and draft a Hall of Fame running back. They become Hall of Fame running backs on their own merit. You go out and draft championship-level running backs. In the early stages, from what I see, there are championship-level running backs out there."
AJ Smith is a dick, no doubt, but we don't see this in any way as a slight against LT. He is assessing the current and future needs of the Chargers and adeptly makes the point that quality running backs can be found in later rounds of the draft (see: Michael Turner (5th) and Darren Sproles (4th)). The 1st round guys may be talented (Wells and Moreno) but they only become HOF caliber through dedication and hard work. Drafting HOFs is not the goal of a GM. Drafting players who can contribute to a championship is the criterion a GM looks for. To label guys as future Hall of Famers in April is foolhardy.
Now if this story was actually a "story" then we'd be hearing a national media uproar similar to the whole 'mocking LT' bit last month. SI.com's Jim Trotter would be calling in to Darren Smith's show talking about the arrogance of AJ. Kevin Acee would be running damage control for AJ's loose lips and Shannon Sharpe would be flapping that gigantic tongue of his all the way from Georgia. Not to mention the Charger Fan backlash that would have overwhelmed the UT blogs and all local radio programs. Have any of these things happened after an article that was written three days ago? Not word one until today..... by the Bleacher Bums.
Too much bad information and poor analysis coming out of these guys. If XTRA1360 is talking about golf we should be able to turn on XX1090 without the fear of being inundated with falsehoods and off base commentary. In addition to the analysis gone awry we were continually told by DI Earl that this quote was on Kevin Acee's blog and was entirely separate from the aforementioned article. This just wasn't the case. Acee's Bolt Blog said nothing regarding the above quotes.
Charger and Padre fans deserve better. We should be able to turn on the radio and acquire up to date and unfiltered information even if it's absent the analysis we feel we deserve. The Bleacher Bums have improved some of the technical aspects of their show but today was just straight junk. They would have you believe that this was their "interpretation" of the story.......we say it was the sort of reading comprehension snafu that generally occurs in students prior to reaching high school.
We'll go ahead and apologize to the Bums if a national uproar ensues regarding AJ's quote but in the meantime this is something that John Lynch needs to examine.
2 comments:
I cannot wait until the day we are free from those clowns at 1090 so I can listen to the station again - THANK YOU for posting the link to Elsten's blog, he is sorely missed on the air here in SD - everyone from 1360 is really. :(
No Problem.
Spread the word about 619 Sports and our humble little spot. The Radio has turned in to a wasteland so we'll have to find new places for information and discussions.
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